


Worlds Enough and Time

by Elennare



Category: High Rollers DnD (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23180275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elennare/pseuds/Elennare
Summary: After Volcanos, Aila visits Nova in the sick bay. Nova has ideas on how to find Aila's home.
Relationships: Aila/Nova V'Ger
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	Worlds Enough and Time

**Author's Note:**

> For janamensch, who suggested it on tumblr!

A couple of days after their undersea adventure, Aila quietly opens the door of the sick bay, and pokes her head around it. “Can I see Nova?”

“Aila!” the air genasi calls from her bed - still weakly, but sounding much stronger than she did when they got back.

Doctor Greylano nods, stifling a yawn. “Yes, so long as she doesn’t get up.”

“Do you want me to sit with her again while you get some rest?” Aila offers. “You look tired.”

Greylano looks at her thoughtfully. It’s not the first time Aila has suggested this, but before Nova had always been sleeping, and the doctor had left Aila with strict instructions to call her at once if she woke. “You promise you won’t let her get up, or get too worked up about anything? She is better than she was, but she’s still recovering.”

“I promise!” Aila says. 

“Then I will go and take a nap, thank you, Aila. Call me if you need anything! And you,” with a stern look at Nova, “stay in bed.”

Nova nods, and waves Aila closer. Aila pulls up a chair next to the bed as Greylano leaves, and looks Nova over.

“Well, you're awake at last! You look better than you did, but you still don’t look great,” she says bluntly. “How do you feel?”

“A lot better,” Nova replies. “Greylano told me you've been coming to see me, I'm sorry I was never awake.”

“It's fine, you needed the sleep,” Aila says, with the soft smile only Nova can call from her.

“I've been thinking how we could find out more about your planet,” Nova begins.

“You're not supposed to be thinking, you're supposed to be resting!” Aila interrupts her.

Nova pulls a face at her. “I'm not allowed out of bed, I've nothing to do but think! I was wondering if Sentry could use the Prime matrix to find out more about it? Root Prime knew about it, after all… or maybe if Lucius touched the matrix again he could do it.”

“Maybe that could work,” Aila says dubiously. “But wasn't it Root Prime himself who knew about it, not the matrix? Sentry's still Sentry, she looks a bit different but she's the same person.”

“I think it's worth trying,” Nova answers. “And the other idea I had is to ask Helios, maybe he would know something, or have seen others like you in Starbane's forces? I think there must be some of your people in Starbane’s army, that would explain why the doors on Aegis V opened for you!”

Aila’s mind goes back to the space citadel, and to those weird medical tubes she had impossible memories of. Nova doesn’t seem to have remembered those, and Aila has no intention of bringing them up! 

Instead, she retorts sarcastically, “I’m sure that will go great. ‘Hey Helios, I think my clan - you know, the one I’ve been looking for to reunite with them - is working for Starbane! Want to help me find them?’ That can’t go wrong at all.”

Nova tilts her head to one side. “Don't you want to find out more about your planet, and your people?”

“Yes?” Aila says, more a question than an answer. She does want to know, it’s why she left the Airdeithe in the first place! But every sliver of an answer just seems to bring more questions, more uncertainties… “I just don't want to put anyone at risk! We don't know much about the Prime matrix, really, what if messing with it hurts Sentry or Lucius? I don't want to make a fuss for what's probably just a dead rock, if there's even anything left at all.” 

“Maybe… But if we can get some idea of where it was, at least, we might be able to go to space and find out!” Nova’s eyes shine at the thought.

“Last time we went to space you ended up with a skeleton arm!” Aila reminds her. “I'm not keen to do that again.”

Nova shrugs. “I've still got three more limbs.”

“No. No you don't. You are done sacrificing limbs - or trying to sacrifice yourself! I heard you telling us to leave you behind in the volcano, stop doing that!” Aila scolds, seizing the chance to say what's been on her mind since they returned.

“Well, you keep trying to sacrifice yourself too, why can't I?” Nova grumbles.

Aila stares at her, thrown by that. “No I don't, what are you talking about?”

“You didn't have to stay and carry me, and you'd have got out much easier if you hadn't… Or on Aegis V, too. You're so strong and fast, you could have got out safely with lots of time to spare if you hadn't waited to pull Lucius and Quill up.”

“That's different,” Aila says, shaking her head. 

“Why? It's still you risking your life for us.”

“Because… I'm not trying to sacrifice myself so everyone _else_ can get out, I'm just making sure we _all_ get out.”

“I don't think it's so different,” Nova says quietly.

Aila frowns. It is different in her mind - it’s the difference between Lucius’s quiet resignation telling them to just go, and her own furious answer ordering him to keep moving; the difference between Nova using the last of her strength to push herself to the side of the collapsed tunnel so the others could pass her, and Aila herself straining every muscle to pull her through. But she doesn’t know how to explain it in a way that will make Nova understand, so she lets it go. 

“Well, I'm not going to argue with you now, I'm supposed to be making sure you rest!”

Nova looks at her with a cheeky smile. “What would you do if I tried to get up?”

“Stop you, and tell Greylano as soon as she comes back!” Aila leans forward, ready to grab her if she tries to move.

Nova giggles. “I don't really want to get up, I'm just teasing… I really do want to go to space again some day, though.”

“Why?” Aila asks, hoping for an answer that will help her understand Nova’s obsession with returning to what might be the most dangerous place they’ve ever been to.

“It's space, Aila! Space! It's beautiful and vast and full of things I don't know! I could find your planet! I could find the genasi homeworld! I could discover so many things!”

“All right, all right,” Aila says, laughing. “Calm down, or Greylano will never let me visit you again.”

“Sorry,” Nova says contritely. “It's just… space!”

“I get it!” Aila replies, holding her hands up. “Or, maybe I don't get it completely, but I get that you love it - and that you're going to go out there again first chance you get, aren't you?”

Nova sighs. “I know we've got so much to do, with Starbane, and Hadar, and everything, but if we somehow manage to save Aerois… Yes, I want to go to space!”

“Guess I'll have to come with you, then,” Aila says, trying to sound nonchalant. 

“You would? Really?” Nova's eyes are wide and sparkling.

“Someone has to watch your back, and make sure you don't end up with another skeleton arm or worse,” Aila retorts.

“So you’ll keep me safe, and I’ll find your planet? I like it,” Nova says softly.

Aila’s not good with words, or with patience, and now she needs both. If Nova were better, she'd say something straight out right now - although she's not entirely sure what she’d say, perhaps something along the lines of that sounding like a date? But Nova isn't well yet, so she needs to hold her tongue.

“Sounds like a deal,” she finally says instead, holding out her hand - her left hand, partly because it will be easiest for Nova to take from where she's lying, but mostly because she'd rather hold Nova's flesh-and-blood hand than the metal glove covering the skeleton one.

“Deal,” Nova replies, extending her own left hand. 

Nova’s cheeks have gone a deeper blue than normal, making those lovely pale star-freckles stand out more. It's things like this that give Aila hope - maybe she's not the best at reading people, but Nova's not the best at hiding things, and Aila's been noticing little things like that for a while now. She takes Nova’s hand and squeezes it gently. For a moment, she considers holding on; but she promised to keep Nova calm, and she can see how even this brief conversation has tired her, so she lets go. Patience doesn’t come easily to Aila, but she’ll muster some, for Nova's sake.


End file.
